


Where it all began: the seeds of the science family

by Zorro_sci



Series: The who, what, when, where, why and how of the science family [4]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bruce and Tony's kids love and hate how mushy they are, Fluff, Love Story, M/M, Science Family, mother-hen!Bruce, sick!Peter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-16
Updated: 2014-08-16
Packaged: 2018-02-13 10:30:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2147364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zorro_sci/pseuds/Zorro_sci
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter is sick, so Tony tells him a story.  A story about Tony and Bruce falling in love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where it all began: the seeds of the science family

Peter was coughing on the couch, wrapped in a warm, blue, polar fleece blanket while Bruce fussed over him. He put a damp, cool washcloth on his forehead and rested the back of a large hand on his cheek.

"Daddy, your hands are cold," the little boy grumbled.

"Sorry, Petter. You still have a fever," his dad returned.

He tucked the blanket closer around his son, and started gathering up the bowl and spoon that were still sitting on the coffee table half-full of soup. As Bruce continued to scurry around, Tony made his way into the penthouse with Jane in tow.

"How's my sick little spider?" Tony asked kneeling down next to Peter.

"I don't feel good, Papa," he whined.

Tony reached out to gently ruffle his hair, and inquired, "Anything I can do to help?"

"Tell me a story?" he asked; his feverish, blue eyes wide with anticipation.

"A story about what?" his father inquired.

"About you and Daddy," he said decisively.

"Maybe about when you fell in love with Daddy?" Jane offered as she returned to the living room from leaving her backpack in her room.

"Yeah," Peter agreed.

Jemma and Fitz showed their tacit agreement by toddling away from their toys and sitting in front of the sofa with Jane; eyes turned expectantly toward Tony.

"Well, if I'm going to tell that story, I think Daddy needs to sit down and hear it," he said, catching Bruce's eye as the other man continued to rush around.

"I suppose I could do that," Bruce said as he settled on the love seat.

Tony sat next to him and sighed.

"I suppose we should start at the beginning . . . ."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"Even before I met your daddy, I knew who he was," Tony started.

"I still can't believe you had heard of me. I mean everyone knows who you are. You're one of the richest and most famous people in the world. Me? I'm just a scientist," Bruce countered.

"Your Daddy is too humble. He's actually really well-known in the scientific community for his ground-breaking research, especially his research in gamma radiation. I had heard of him, and admired his work, but had never met him, even though I wanted too," Tony began. "Then Thor's brother tried to take over the world and they asked me and your Daddy to help stop him. That's how we met. That's also how we met Uncle Steve, Aunt Natasha, Uncle Thor and Uncle Clint. We worked together to saved the world.

Once we'd finished, I asked your Daddy to come live with me. I really wanted the chance to keep working with him because he was so incredibly smart that I didn't have to slow down for him to keep up. I'd never worked with anyone who could keep up before, and I really like it. 

I also just really liked him. I don't know why, but I knew I could trust him, even though we had just met. Plus, he's really cute."

Bruce flushed, and Jane and Peter looked torn between "awwwing" and "ewwwwing."

"So, he moved into the floor below this one, and we started working together in the lab. He also started cooking for me, since I can't cook, and _apparently_ he didn't think I should eat takeout every night."

"Because it's not healthy to eat takeout _all_ the time," Bruce broke in.

"So he says, but I think he was just looking for an excuse to spend more time with me . . But anyway . . .we started to spend a lot of time together, and I started to realize that I really liked him as more than just a friend, so I asked him on a date."

"I actually almost didn't notice. He said, 'I was thinking we should run more tests on the new arc reactors to see if the modifications we made improved their efficiency. Oh, and would you like to go out to dinner with me at eight? You know, on a date? Also, we should schedule a test flight for Mark L.' 

When he finished rambling it took me a minute to catch up."

"But he did, because he's a genius," Tony said proudly, leaning over to kiss Bruce quickly on the lips. "So we went to this Italian restaurant. Pasta, violin music, candlelit table. . . It was perfect."

"I was hooked. I don't know if I was in love with your Papa quite yet, but he certainly had my attention."

"I knew your Daddy was special on that first date. It felt different than any other date I'd been on; mainly because I had just spent the whole day with him in the lab, but I couldn't wait to spend more time with him. I just wanted to spend every minute with him. I didn't want dinner to end, because then I'd have to take him back to his apartment, and I would miss him."

"That's incredibly sappy, Tony," Bruce teased.

The children exchanged glances as they looked at the loving gazes passing between their parents. On the one hand it was reassuring to know their fathers loved each other. On the other hand . . . . Gross!

"Hey, the kids want the truth!" Tony protested.

"By all means, continue . . . ." Bruce said with a smirk and hands raised in surrender.

"Our first date was special, but the day I knew I loved your Daddy started as just a normal day in the lab. We were re-running a set of equations because we kept making mistakes. We would get weird answers that we knew were wrong, and have to go back to see what we missed. After doing that about three or four times, we were pretty much stuck. 

I looked over at your Daddy, and he had that cute, little wrinkle between his brows that he gets when he concentrates. He was just staring at the equations with that look on his face, and I knew. I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life solving equations with him. I wanted to work through the hard times with him, and concentrate on solving our problems together."

"That's pretty deep for watching me try to solve an equation," Bruce commented with a grin.

"What can I say? I'm a deep thinker," Tony answered with a smirk.

Bruce gave him a dubious look, and the kids gave each other dubious looks, (were they going to start kissing again?).

"Then you got married?" Jane asked in excitement, when the threat of any more parental displays of affection had passed.

"Not right away, but not too long afterward," Bruce answered.

"And then you adopted us, and the science family lived happily ever after," Peter concluded happily.

"Science family?" Bruce asked. "You've been spending too much time with Uncle Clint."

"Oh come on Bruce, it is kinda perfect," Tony countered, nudging his husband's shoulder playfully.

Bruce looked from his children to Tony and remarked softly, "It really is."

Tony understood his meaning, and caught his lips in a quick, loving kiss while their children looked away in gleeful embarrassment.


End file.
